Born: 29 January 1797, Germany
Died: 22 October 1857
Country most active: Germany
Also known as: Rheingräfn
Dr. Doris Gutsmiedl-Schümann on early German-speaking archaeologists transcript
The following is excerpted from a 2025 interview with Dr. Doris Gutsmiedl-Schümann, co-investigator for AktArcha, a project researching early female archaeologists from German speaking areas. A German biography can be found on the AktArcha site.
The first woman who was considered to be the first female archaeologist in Germany is called Sibylle Mertens-Schaaffhausen. She was born in 1797 and lived until 1857. And she was also known as the Rheingräfn, which is German for Countess of the Rhine. It’s like an honorary title she got from her friends and her connections in society. She lived in the city of Bonn, but also spent some time of her life in Italy, especially in Rome. Before we look at her life, we also have to look at how archaeology works in this time, because it was different from what is archaeology now. Before archaeology developed as an academic discipline, the past was studied basically based on written texts on art and architecture from ancient times. So knowledge production among antiquarians and first archaeologists was conducted through hands-on experience with artifacts or conversations between them over artifacts, texts and architecture.
So Sibylle Mertens-Schaaffhausen came from a wealthy background and she had quite a fortune herself. And she was able to provide space and possibility for those conversations of antiquarians and artists in her so-called salon. And she contributed to the meetings with her knowledge. So salons, that’s also something we have to know in the 19th century, are places of knowledge production and gathering of educated people. They are often held by an inspiring host who entertains them and connects people who are from different arts and from different backgrounds, from different knowledge backgrounds. And to have them have conversations, but in the salons they also had meetings throughout or music or literature, also everything that could be considered as an educational way of spending the spare time could be done there.
So Sibylle Mertens-Schaaffhausen was the only host of a salon in Germany at that time that was dedicated to the past and especially the Roman and Greek classic antiques, but also to other times of the past. And with her wealth, Sibylle Mertens-Schaaffhausen bought a lot of artifacts. She had her own collection, which was used during those meetings. And she also was able to buy books and to create her own research library, because as a woman in the first half of the 19th century, she was not able to go to university. She was not able to use the libraries of universities or other educational institutions. So she had to make her own way into archaeology and into archaeology and antiquarians knowledge. So Sibylle Mertens-Schaaffhausen had a very colorful life. She was not only active in archaeology and as an antiquarian, but also she was also a musician and has also a reputation for being host of concerts and was able to play herself.
But this part of her life, we will not look at today. Today we focus on her as archaeologist and antiquarian. Her interest in archaeology and antiquities started very early. She received as a child the usual non-formal education through her father’s salon and her father’s friends. She was especially prepared to be married in another wealthy family and to run her own house and her own household. But as she was from a wealthy family and had some fortune of her own, she was also able to pay for people doing household work for her, which gave her spare time to do her research and to dive into archaeology. She was the first woman who was admitted to the scientific meetings of the Instituto di Corrispondenza Archeologica in Rome. That’s a predecessor of today’s German Archaeological Institute in Rome. And there she presented copies of engraved gems, which she was researching. And in 1849, she was the first woman who was allowed there to give a presentation and to give a talk there.
Sibylle Mertens-Schaaffhausen is an excellent example of a highly educated, cultured and wealthy woman of the early 19th century who only could improve her knowledge by collecting and working with books, arts and antiquities through her own wealth and through her possibility to buy stuff and to pay other people to do the work she was expected to do in the household and in the family. Furthermore, she provided the space and the networks for other antiquarians and archaeologists to meet in her salons, especially in Bonn and Rome, and was most influential to them with her knowledge. As a woman, she could not obtain official positions in the newly founded archaeological associations or institutions, but she was able to participate and to educate younger colleagues. And we also know that she was most influential on younger colleagues who made a career in archaeology in the later 19th century.